Casquería is the soul of the place, but the carta goes well beyond it, with playful tapas, seasonal produce and traditional stews. It runs from gildas and a Madrid Fusión finalist jamón croquette through callos cooked over three days, morros confited and fried under fabada foam, sweetbreads, a cured-tongue bikini and canelones de tres carnes, to desserts like flan de huevo, a lemon tart and a tonka-bean brioche. Plenty of it comes in half or full portions, and the kitchen adds off-menu suggestions depending on the day.

La Barra de la Tasquería occupies Calle del Duque de Sesto 48, the room where Javi Estévez first opened La Tasquería before it moved on. The new project keeps the soul of the original and its reinvented casquería, with a more open, lively and approachable style. It calls itself a taberna at heart with the soul of a restaurant, and it holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

When Javi Estévez and his team opened La Tasquería here in 2015, the plan was simply a casquería taberna with raciones to share, and it became much more. Adrián Collantes was 19 at the time and had never cooked offal. When Estévez moved La Tasquería to bigger premises, the two came back to collect a freezer, and Collantes suggested doing something more informal in the old room, more bar, raciones and seasonal produce; Estévez said yes and they became partners. The idea was to go back to the spirit of La Tasquería's first years, 2015 to 2017, with a step up in presentation.

Adrián Collantes is from Madrid, has cooked since he was 18 and was Javi Estévez's right hand for years. After El Mesón de Doña Filo, La Tasquería and El Lince, and a spell in Australia, he came back to this room as partner and head chef. His steak tartare won the fifth Campeonato de Steak Tartar at the Fòrum Gastronòmic in Girona, and he makes it daily. He trained at the cookery school in the Casa de Campo, and his last job before La Barra was head chef of El Lince, Estévez's other Madrid kitchen.

The award-winning tartare starts with beef rump, hand-chopped to respect its texture, bound with egg yolk, a reduced meat stock and chives, then finished with olive oil, black pepper and salt. The dressing is what sets it apart: ketchup, mayonnaise, gherkin, caper, onion, Worcestershire sauce, vermouth and Tabasco, all blended so every bite is even. It's served on buttered, toasted brioche made by Viena La Baguette.

The tongue for the bikini is cured and slowly smoked in house, then sliced and pressed between thin brioche with melted Comté. The pork-snout taco is cooked until meltingly soft, crisped, and dressed with pickles and anchovy butter. Rice dishes are the work of Alejandro Marmaneu, from Benicàssim, and change from day to day, from butifarra and mushrooms with fresh foie to artichoke and duck. Collantes' own obsession is stocks and sauces; with a good base, he says, you can make great dishes without unnecessary complication.

Casquería is the heart of the menu. The callos are cooked over three days (€15 half, €22.50 full), the pork snout is confited, then fried and topped with fabada foam (€11 or €17), and there are veal sweetbreads (€24.50), lamb sweetbreads (€23.50), brains (€14.50) and confit pig's ear (€18.50), plus pig's trotter as an off-menu dish. To start, there are gildas with anchovy or smoked sardine (€3.50), a jamón ibérico croquette that was a finalist for the world's best croquette at Madrid Fusión 2025 (€3.75), the steak tartare on brioche with grated pickled foie (€10) and a bikini of cured, smoked tongue with 15-month Comté (€13.50). Beyond offal there are three-meat cannelloni filled with pork cheek, Ibérico jowl and chicken (€25), sirloin rice (€28) and desserts such as egg flan and a lemon tart at €9. Many dishes come as a full or half ración.

The restaurant suggests starting with the pork snout taco with pickles and anchovy butter (€7) or the lamb sweetbreads, which are rich but approachable, and asking about the off-menu dishes of the day. There is plenty on the carta without offal too.

Joaquín García runs the drinks, with a list of around 80 Spanish and international wines, about 70% of them by the glass: fortified wines, sparkling, Garnacha, Pinot Noir and more, from a glass of manzanilla pasada to a moscatel with dessert. García, who also runs the dining room, aims to pour 70 to 75 percent of the list by the glass so the selection can change every few days, and he'd rather offer less obvious bottles than the usual names: there have been days without a single Rioja or Ribera. Expect ageable wines, fortified wines, sparkling, structured whites, French bottles, Tokaji, Sancerre and some singular Madrid wines.

La Barra de la Tasquería opens Monday to Saturday for lunch (13:30 to 16:00) and dinner (20:30 to 23:00), and on Sunday for lunch only. You can walk in, but booking ahead through its site or on +34 913 042 362 is strongly recommended, especially at weekends; weekday lunch is the quietest time. Pets are not allowed, because of the open kitchen.